NTC tags remote areas for SIM listing

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) on Friday said it has identified geographically isolated areas for the rollout of the “assisted SIM registration.”

Meanwhile, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) said over 22 million SIMs have been registered as of Jan. 18. NTC officer-in-charge Ella Blanca Lopez said an inter-agency ad hoc committee tasked to speed up the SIM Registration in remote areas has been formed.

During a meeting of the panel, the NTC presented to member agencies and the telephone companies (telcos) the list of remote places as identified by the task force.

“A total of 45 remote areas within 15 regions of the country were identified,” Lopez said.

The NTC recommended a simultaneous roll-out of the SIM registration activities among the areas identified starting January 25, 2023, according to the NTC chief.

She said the telcos would check the operational feasibility of the plan, and expected to give the NTC a feedback on the matter on January 20, 2023.

Members of the Inter-Agency Ad Hoc Committee all agreed to provide assistance as telcos visit these remote areas for their SIM

registration efforts.

“Remote areas for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) will still be coordinated with the Bangsamoro Telecommunications Commission,” Lopez said.

Present during the meeting were representatives of the Department of Information and Communications Technology, Department of Interior and Local Government, Department of Education, Department of Public Works and Highways, Philippine Information Agency, Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine National Police, and the Philippine Coast Guard.

The DICT said the volume of registered SIM cards represented 13.20 percent of the total 168 million active SIM subscribers as of September 2022.

Broken down, DITO has 1,844,675 successful SIM registrations, Globe has 9,337,537, and Smart has 11,115,808.

“It is vital that we maintain, or better yet increase, the current pace of daily SIM registration to meet the deadline of April 26, 2023 for all SIMs to be duly registered,” Lopez said.

DICT Spokesperson Undersecretary Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo said DICT regional offices have implemented assistance desks in MIMAROPA with the help of Tech4Ed Centers located in Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, and Palawan.

For those who have not registered their SIMs, the following are the only official online channels:

• SMART—smart.com.ph/simreg or simreg.smart.com.ph
• GLOBE—new.globe.com.ph/simreg
• DITO—https://digital.dito.ph/pto/download/app

For complaints, users can reach hotline 1326.